It is unfortunate that my first entry for April is about this. Mind you, Suzanne and Charlene were my favorites, which is not to say that Mary Jo and Julia were slouches, because they were not. Especially, Julia.
Julia Sugarbaker.
It's strange, but lately, I've been thinking about sitcom rants - Steve's bathroom and naked bottoms rants on Coupling; Edina's rants about the laws and the sucking away of fun in favor of political correctness on Absolutely Fabulous. Yeah - the Brits know how to write fantastic rants. But the Bloodworth-Thomasons of the late 80s and early 90s were no joke and thankfully, they cast Dixie Carter as Julia Sugarbaker and she delivered the goods every single time.
Carter, a conservative, remarked that everytime she had to give a Julia tear, which was usually in a liberal vein, the Bloodworth-Thomasons had to give her an opportunity to sing on the show. I assume that this clip was a result of the under the table bargain. And it's just funny as hell!
And rarely did Julia make a misstep, but when she did, it was fantastic:
But Carter's signature, beyond the much lamented cocky walk and great legs, was her rants. One of my favorites didn't require her to yell or anything, but I think of it whenever I go into Barnes & Noble or any bookstore. It involved Julia attempting to buy Tess of the d'Urbervilles and a kid was minding the register - a kid who obviously wasn't that into books. He didn't know where Julia could find Tess because he never heard of it, but he knew where she could find 'the hind end of a cartoon cat' that you could attach to your car window with suction cups. Just the way Julia pronounced 'literature' - classic. I hope to find that clip, but there are others that are classic Julia 'The Terminator' Sugarbaker moments. Like this:
So... a hat tip to one of the last great big shouldered, big-mouthed dames to ever grace night-time television.
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